Chronicles of Espiria Season 1
Episode 7 - The Dusk Patrol
Written by Stormrider and Eris_Chara
Khramer and his regiment of warriors marched toward their rendezvous with Brutus and his forces; the Dark Forest was the only thing standing in his way, and he had taken measures to ensure that the forest folk offered him no resistance. He had hired Nara of Rustport to draw the attention of the forest Wilders, to keep them occupied so that his own forces could pass unnoticed through the forest. His plan, however, required stealth; if the Wilders noticed his coming, his plan could be foiled and his arrangement with Nara could be for nothing. So imagine his concern at the capture of a falcon bearing an encoded message.
"That's three birds we've shot down now! Where are they coming from?!"
"We're still looking for the spy, Chieftain."
"Double the guard tonight! And inform me immediately of anything out of the ordinary!"
That night, the cat-like Wilder spy known as Kaz watched, hidden from view, as the Mauler troops, except for those on watch, slept in their tents. For days she had watched them maintain a fairly direct heading toward the Dark Forest. Travel was tough; avoiding capture was even tougher. She hated staying still like this. A few rash decisions had almost exposed her the day before; only her training as an assassin kept her alive. It didn't help that every note sent so far had been intercepted; although they were encoded, the Maulers were smart enough to figure out that someone was watching them. Thanks to their vigilance, no message had been received in the Dark Forest in more than a week.
A sudden flash of movement in the corner of her eye startled her, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a sleek gray falcon perched at her side. It was another messenger bird. Kaz quickly scribbled out another message, tucked the note in a small tube on the bird's leg, and watched it fly off into the night, hoping that the bird would reach the Dark Forest before the Maulers did.
The next morning, deep within the safety of the trees, fresh new Dusk Patrol trainees were being instructed by Lyca, the bunny-like appointed leader of the Dusk Patrol. Her talent for bringing out the hidden skills of people made her ideal for the job, even if she wasn't the greatest fighter of the Wilders. Her voice cut clearly through the noise-filled air, praising those who performed well and correcting those who did not.
"Very good, Auran!" Lyca said to a young elf as she walked. "You're skill with a spear is improving!"
Auran paused a moment to give a thankful smile before resuming his training. Lyca continued in this manner until her attention was drawn by the sudden appearance of Ira, a wolf-like archer and senior member of the Dusk Patrol just after Lyca; a wounded falcon was cradled in her arms.
"A message just arrived from Kaz." Ira said as she held out the falcon.
A small wave of relief washed over Lyca. She was beginning to worry that Kaz had died; at least now they knew that she was alive. She and Ira strode over to an area further away from the trainees so as not to disturb their training.
"What does she say?" Lyca asked.
"Nothing good." Ira responded dismally. "According to Kaz, there are about two thousand Maulers heading straight for the forest."
There was a long silence, broken only by the clacks of the trainees' practice weapons, as Lyca pondered this new information. "How long do we have to prepare?"
"Four to five days." Ira responded.
"And I assume the previous birds were shot down?"
"Yes, every one of them."
"Why didn't she try sending the message on the wind for the Wind Whisperers?"
"Have you ever spoken to Lorsan after he got a message from Kaz?"
Lyca rolled her eyes. Lorsan was one of the best Wind Whisperers in the forest, able to pluck information from the tiniest of breezes; he also had a serious unreciprocated crush on Kaz.
"Any idea where they're heading?" Lyca asked.
"Lightbearers and Maulers are fighting on the other side of the forest; it's plausible these are reinforcements." Ira replied.
"So the Maulers still don't take us seriously." Lyca mused. "Let's make sure those reinforcements don't get through."
While the Wilders prepared for the Mauler incursion, Nara was busy making final preparations for a ship to sail to the Azure Cove, a large inlet just northeast of the Dark Forest, where her plan was to unfold. Days later, as the cove came in sight of the ship's lookout, Nara was overseeing preparations for her landing in the cove when her assistant and boyfriend, Jim, approached her about a matter of concern to him.
"Nara, I wanted to confirm something. You're having the men prepare chains and manacles, but not cannonballs or black powder?"
"That's right. Is something wrong?"
"It just seems strange. We were hired to serve as a distraction; you'd think that the sound of the cannons would be much more distracting than chains rattling."
"Oh, Jim, you're so cute when you're trying to be smart!" Nara said as she pinched Jim's cheek. "Here, I'll walk you through it. We're gonna reach the Wilder territories in the morning. Once we're there, we're gonna wait until the Maulers have the Wilders' attention, then sneak in and take as many captives as we can get before they finish the Maulers off."
"So instead of serving as a distraction for the Maulers, the Maulers will serve as a distraction for us."
"Very good, Jim." Nara said as she started to turn away and continue preparations.
"So what are we gonna do with the Wilders we capture? Ransom them back?"
"Sure, I'll be happy to sell them back, if they can outbid everyone at the slave market."
"Wait," Jim said, his face darkening, "we're taking slaves?"
Nara rolled her eyes, still surprised at how slow Jim could be to figure things out. "I know you like pickpocketing and blackmail, and that's why we'll still keep doing it, but you gotta understand; the real money in Rustport is in the slave trade. We have to get in on it before our enemies do, or they'll use the money they make to take over our other businesses. It's the only way we'll survive."
"But there has to be another way! I hate the idea of slavery! I keep imagining what it'd be like to be a slave!"
Jim started to tear up as he imagined being lashed in the back. Nara hugged him to try to calm him down.
"Tell you what, Sweety, go to my cabin and we'll talk about this some more there, okay?"
Jim nodded and turned to go to Nara's quarters. He didn't get very far, however, before Nara took up an axe and unceremoniously beheaded him. The sight of Jim's lifeless corpse hitting the deck grabbed the attention of everyone nearby.
"Anyone else have a problem taking half-breed slaves?!" Nara shouted.
The next day, the Maulers arrived at the edge of the Dark Forest. One young soldier stood at the edge of the tree line, staring at the ominous trees towering above him. His comrades did the same, pausing for a moment before heading into the relative darkness of the woods.
The forest was eerily silent; combined with the shadows and early morning mist, this gave the forest a haunted look. Just yesterday, this same forest had been a flurry of movement and activity. The young Mauler assumed that the Wilders had evacuated the area. This was good for him; it would make the trip a lot easier.
Unnoticed by the Maulers, their army of two thousand was being divided into groups of hundreds and even tens by the growth and receding of shrubbery. The young Mauler's group was struggling to keep up with a group just beyond them, eventually losing sight of them. Finally, they came to a clearing. The young Mauler pushed aside a large bush and found...
Nothing. Where they should have found the rest of their comrades, they instead found themselves lost. They called out to their comrades; when no one answered, they decided to go back the way they came.
Then it came for them. Death. A fleeting shadow in the trees. One of the Maulers fell, an arrow embedded in his neck. Over the next few minutes, it came for them all, one by one. Unseen, swift, not a single arrow wasted, each one spilling bright red blood on the forest floor. Finally, it came for the young Mauler, as he always knew it would; a cloaked figure flying straight at him. And like a good Mauler, he stared his death bravely in the face.
As this thinning of the army continued, Nara and her crew dropped anchor in the Azure Cove. She and half her crew disembarked, armed with chains and nets, hoping that the Maulers would put up a good enough fight for them to harvest a full load of slaves for the cargo hold. Standing at the line between sand and grass, however, was what appeared to be a small old man with goat horns growing from his head.
"Are you here to stop us, old man?"
"No, young children, I come with a warning. We were warned of the coming of your Mauler allies by one of our scouts, and they will be dealt with in our own way. Your coming was foreseen by the spirit of the cove, and he has chosen to give you an opportunity to escape his wrath. Return to your ship and leave this place, and no harm will come to you. But try to take any of the people of the forest, and you will not reach the open ocean alive."
"Thanks for the warning. I'll let your friends know you tried to talk me out of taking them. Now get out of my way."
The old man shuffled to the side and allowed the raiding party to pass.
"They have been warned, Seirus." the old man said, seemingly speaking to the water. "Their blood is now on their own heads. Do what you must."
Back in the forest, Ira led her team through the woods toward the last remaining group of Maulers. She silently admitted that Solise, the forest's premier botanist, had done a good job with the plants, splitting the Mauler army into easily manageable groups. Ira could tell from faint traces of blood and the occasional corpse that the other teams had dispatched similar groups. She might have been concerned at how quickly Solise was gathering the corpses for her composting, if she wasn't already more concerned about the surviving Maulers.
The Maulers weren't hard to track; their path was marked by hacked plants trampled underfoot. As Ira's group drew nigh, loud, raucous voices could be heard. Ira positioned her archers in the trees above and waited for Lyca's signal. A quick bird-like trill from below revealed that the elven archer Aerin and her troops were in place as well.
Suddenly, a white and pale pink deer bounded gracefully out of the shade of the trees, startling both Maulers and Wilders. It was the signal to attack.
A flurry of motion. The twang of bows, Whistling arrows and cries of pain. The forest became a chaotic blur of wood, steel, and blood. Both Wilder and Mauler fell, defiling the forest with corpses, blood pooling beneath them.
Covered from head to toe in blood, none of it her own, Ira let arrows fly from her bow with deadly precision, sometimes firing multiple at once. Her adversaries fell around her, each with an arrow protruding from them. Finally, the Maulers started trying to retreat, a futile effort thanks to the thick foliage and the merciless efforts of the Dusk Patrol.
"This is what you get for not taking us seriously" Ira thought, smirking. "Next time we..."
Her musings were abruptly cut off by Khramer; she had thought him dead, but he still had enough life left in him to sneak up on her. Khramer's thrown knife missed Ira by a wide margin, but she still lost her balance and fell out of the tree she was perched in, landing hard on her legs. She tried to stand, quietly cursing her carelessness, and faced Khramer.
"Just a few cracked bones," she told herself as she fumbled for an arrow. "Nothing to worry about yet."
But the pain made it clear that her leg was much more than cracked. She forced herself to focus through the pain and get an arrow notched as Khramer slowly dragged himself toward Ira, sword drawn. Suddenly, there was a flash of green and black and a cry of pain. Ira looked up from her bow and found Khramer on the ground, a wooden knife in his chest.
"You're welcome." Kaz said, smirking.
"Kaz!" Ira exclaimed, then quickly corrected herself, taking on a gruff tone. "You could have arrived sooner, instead of waiting for the end of the battle."
Kaz snorted. "Come on, admit it; you're grateful."
"And boost your ego? In your dreams."
They both laughed, then Kaz helped Ira to the sheep-like Wilder Nemora, who was nearby in anticipation of the wounded in the battle. Nemora had beyond-remarkable healing abilities, which would be used this day to save many Wilder lives that might otherwise have been lost. Lyca was already there encouraging the wounded when Ira and Kaz arrived.
"There you two are." Lyca said, then turned to Nemora. "Can we take Ira somewhere more private? We need to talk."
"Of course." Nemora said as she helped Ira away from the bustle of her medical station.
"Are we here to talk about my spectacular last-minute entrance?" Kaz joked. Her smile faded when she saw Lyca's expression.
"There have been strange happenings in the forest lately." Lyca said.
"You don't say..." Ira mumbled.
"This Mauler incursion is just the latest problem. I don't think even Arden knows exactly what's going on yet. I want you two to double patrols; I'll get you help once I think some more of the trainees are ready. Hopefully once Arden figures out what's going on, we can help."
"We're some of the best fighters this forest has!" Kaz exclaimed. "Of course we can help!"
Lyca sighed. "I hope so, but until we know how to help, all we can do is watch and wait."
By the time the battle had ended, Nara and her raiding party had finished their work and returned to the ship. Nara smiled thinly to herself. The cries, screams, and Dura knows what other sounds of suffering could be heard from the cargo hold as the Wilder captives were secured. Nara was unfazed; she just took in the scenery of the Azure Cove as her crew weighed anchor, smirking in the face of the cove that so many would've avoided. She was confident that the worst was behind her; little did she know that her rash decision would be the death of her and her crew.
As the ship sailed out of the cove, a thunderous yell was heard, silencing even the surrounding wildlife. This was followed by the sound of a thousand conch shells being sounded at the same time. Nara cursed as she took the helm, trying to lead the ship on an evasive course; she had heard stories of the Spirit of the Azure Cove, but never gave them credence until now. She was not thinking straight as she plotted her course; not only was she guided by sudden fear and adrenaline, but she forgot that the Azure Cove was the Spirit's domain, and everything in it could be used by him as a weapon against his enemies. The water suddenly became a swirling mess of unforgiving currents, battering the ship in all directions. Nara managed to steer clear of most of the rocks, but the hull still sustained heavy damage.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a monster wave appeared before the ship, with what appeared to be an enormous, vaguely humanoid tortoise wielding an equally enormous hammer riding atop the wave. With a battle cry that sounded almost like a curse word, the tortoise charged the ship with hammer raised. There was no contest; Nara could not steer the ship away from this beast. The huge hammer fell on the bow of the ship, ripping it away and allowing the wave to enter unabated. The ship was torn apart from the inside out.
The Wilder captives were gently returned to shore on the shattered flotsam of the ship, their chains and manacles broken. The slavers on the ship, however, would not see another sunrise. Nara and a few of her crew were lucky; they were thrown unconscious overboard and drowned in the slowly calming waters of the cove. The rest drifted to shore alongside the Wilder captives; these were met on shore by the massive tortoise, who took great pleasure in crushing the slavers into an unrecognizable jelly with his hammer. As the tortoise continued his work, the Spirit of the Cove took humanoid form and drifted onto shore, where he met with the old man who tried to warn Nara.
"You have done well, Seirus." the old man said. "I only wish your task today was unnecessary."
"Blame not yourself, Arden." Seirus responded. "As you said, the pirates' blood was on their heads."
"I know." Arden said, then fell quiet.
"Something else troubles you, old friend?" Seirus asked after a pause.
"I have come across a troubling puzzle. If you find anymore strange occurrences, please let me know."
"Of course. Until we meet again," Seirus said as he vanished beneath the waves again.